The political economy of coal: Lessons learnt from 15 country cases

Abstract

This chapter summarizes key insights from the 15 country case studies assembled in this integrated volume. We first present the policy objectives related to coal that were most frequently mentioned in the individual chapters. These stated objectives include affordability, energy security as well as climate and other environmental issues. We then discuss the role of powerful vested interests and the importance of multilevel governance identified in most of the studies. The comparison across studies reveals pronounced differences between characteristic country groups (countries phasing out coal, established coal users, countries about to ramp up coal capacities and exporters) with regard to the political economy of coal. Finally, we discuss how these insights might be translated into policies to phase out coal that are appropriate for different types of countries.